Libertarians, secession, and crackpots

A close aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) who co-wrote the senator’s 2011 book spent years working as a pro-secessionist radio pundit and neo-Confederate activist, raising questions about whether Paul will be able to transcend the same fringe-figure associations that dogged his father’s political career.

Paul hired Jack Hunter, 39, to help write his book The Tea Party Goes to Washington during his 2010 Senate run. Hunter joined Paul’s office as his social media director in August 2012.

From 1999 to 2012, Hunter was a South Carolina radio shock jock known as the “Southern Avenger.” He has weighed in on issues such as racial pride and Hispanic immigration, and stated his support for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

During public appearances, Hunter often wore a mask on which was printed a Confederate flag.

Prior to his radio career, while in his 20s, Hunter was a chairman in the League of the South, which “advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.”

Senator Rand Paul’s father Congressman Ron Paul was responsible for racist newsletters that the senior Paul would later claim were written without his oversight when running for president. Looks like the son has the same sense of associates that his father did. But it’s not just the embrace of the crackpot loonies among the Libertarians that should bother us about Senator Paul. As Matt Lewis points out in the Daily Caller, this wacky social media director actually says we shouldn’t believe the Senator when he talks about foreign policy.

If the Paulites insist on embracing crackpots, racists, and secessionists, then conservatives should insist on a different presidential candidate in 2016.